Storage domain GUI

ABSTRACT

A method generates a graphical portion of a graphical user interface (GUI), the graphical portion concerning aspects of a storage domain. Such a method may include: illustrating a tree hierarchy; including, on the tree hierarchy, a node at a first level corresponding to a set of at least two file systems that are members of the storage domain; and including, on the tree hierarchy, nodes at a second level reporting to the first-level node, each second-level node corresponding to a member of the set of files systems to which the first node corresponds. Related apparatus and machine-readable media having instructions can each include features similar to elements of the method.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that use a tree-table are known, as arecertain variations. One such variation is a GUI that uses a two-panetree & table combination.

A known manager application used with a storage domain has a GUI thatillustrates information about the provider(s) of storage, e.g., anetwork-attached storage (NAS) device and its relationships to thestorage domain using a two-pane tree & table combination GUI. A treehierarchy is illustrated in one of the panes and a corresponding tableis illustrated in the other pane.

The known NAS manager GUI shows, at a first level of the tree-hierarchy,a first-category node corresponding to the group of all file systems(file volumes) mounted on the NAS device. An example of two file systemscan be the logical c:-drive and the logical d:-drive on a computer. Nonode representing a single file-system/member-of-the-group isillustrated in the tree hierarchy. Also shown in the tree hierarchy are:a second node-category, at the first level, corresponding to allallotments of storage space on the NAS device; and two nodes at a secondlevel reporting to the all-allotments node, one of which represents allinstances of individual storage consumers, the other of which representsall instances of groups of storage consumers. No node representing asingle instance of storage-consumer, nor a single instance of a group ofstorage consumers, is illustrated in the tree hierarchy.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An embodiment of the invention is directed toward a method of generatinga graphical portion of a graphical user interface (GUI), the graphicalportion concerning aspects of a storage domain. Such a method mayinclude: illustrating a tree hierarchy; including, on the treehierarchy, a node at a first level corresponding to a set of at leasttwo file systems that are members of the storage domain; and including,on the tree hierarchy, nodes at a second level reporting to thefirst-level node, each second-level node corresponding to a member ofthe set of files systems to which the first node corresponds.

Other embodiments of the invention include related apparatus andmachine-readable media having instructions, each of which may includefeatures similar to elements of the method.

Additional features and advantages of the invention will be more fullyapparent from the following detailed description of example embodimentsand the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings are: intended to depict example embodiments of theinvention and should not be interpreted to limit the scope thereof.

FIG. 1 is an architecture diagram of a storage domain according to anembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 depicts a graphical portion of a graphical user interface (GUI)according to an embodiment of the invention in the context of an examplecircumstance in which use of the GUI can arise.

FIG. 3 depicts a variation on the graphical portion of FIG. 2.

And FIG. 4 depicts another graphical portion according to an embodimentof the invention and corresponding to the graphical portion of FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 is an architecture diagram of a distributed system 100, e.g., astorage domain. In the context of a storage-domain, e.g., 100, use canbe made of a graphical user interface (GUI) according to an embodimentof the invention.

Components of the storage domain 100 can include: one or more providers102 (and optionally, 101, 103, etc.) of storage capacity; a manager 118of the NAS-device 102 (hereafter, the “NAS-manager 118”); variousindividual consumers of storage 106, 108, 110, etc.; and various groupsof storage consumers 112, 114, 116, etc.; and a networking protocoland/or architecture (NPA) 104 through which the components 102, 106-118can communicate. A storage provider such as 102 can be, e.g., anetwork-attached storage (NAS) device.

The storage-consumers 106-116 are consumers in the sense that theyconsume storage capacity made available to them through the storagedomain 100. The storage-providers 101-103 are providers of storagecapacity to the storage domain 100. Particular collections ofstorage-domain components vary according to circumstances in which thestorage-domain is assembled and evolves. Thus, the storage domain 100can include additional storage consumers and/or additional providers ofstorage.

In general operation of the storage domain 100, the storage consumers106-116 are allotted respective amounts of storage capacity (madeavailable by the storage-providers 101-103) on the storage-domain 100.The provisioning, allotment and control over (including access to) thestorage capacity (more generally, the management thereof is performedvia the NAS-manager 118. Also, where permitted by the NAS-manager 118,the storage consumers 106-116 can conduct writes/reads directly (in thesense of not needing the involvement of the NAS-manager 118) to/from theNAS-device 102 via the NPA 104.

As will be described below, the NAS-manager 118 makes use of a GUIaccording to an embodiment of the invention, thus making the NAS-manager118 another embodiment of the invention. A graphical portion of such aGUI can, e.g., enhance a user's ability to manage the storage madeavailable by the NAS-device 102 various storage-domain components. Anexample of a NAS device (and its associated management softwareincluding the components external to the NAS device) that can be adaptedaccording to the description provided below (and so represent anembodiment of the invention) is the Hewlett-Packard Company brandNAS8000 model of NAS-device.

Typically, the NAS-manager 118 is an application loaded on a host 140(shown as an exploded view 141 with phantom lines) that is connected tothe NPA 104. In general, a host is a computer that can provide/receivedata and/or services via an NPA, e.g., 104. Typical components found inthe host 140 include: a central processing unit (CPU) 142; volatilememory 144; non-volatile memory 152; a keyboard 146; a pointing device,e.g., a mouse, 148; and a monitor 150.

The NAS manager 118 can generate a GUI 122 based upon the GUI accordingto an embodiment of the invention, as briefly noted above. The GUI 122can be a plug-in to an internet browser 120. The NAS device 102 caninclude a host 134 and a storage array 124 of various individual storageunits 126-132, etc., e.g., hard disk drives. The NAS host 134 caninclude components similar to those of the host 140. Management software138, which interacts with the NAS-manager 118, can be loaded on the host134. The NAS-manager 118 and the host/management_software 134/138 can bebased upon a client-server architecture, respectively.

An embodiment, at least in part, of the invention is the recognition ofthe following. Storage domains typically have multiple file systems onwhich multiple users/groups have amounts of storage space allotted,respectively. In the storage-domain context, it can be desirable toview: a tree-hierarchy depicting a parent node corresponding to all filesystems of the storage domain and child nodes thereof corresponding toinstances of the files systems; and/or the space allotments across twoor more files systems for all of the users and/or groups in one table.The known NAS manager GUI of the Background Art does not provide suchcapability. As to the latter, the known NAS manager GUI provides a tablefor a single file system and representing the associated users orgroups, but not both users and groups.

FIG. 2 depicts a graphical portion 200 of a graphical user interface(GUI) according to an embodiment of the invention (hereafter, the“present GUI”) in the context of an example circumstance in which use ofthe present GUI can arise, which in FIG. 2 is the context of a storagedomain, e.g., 100. The graphical portion 200 can be depicted, e.g., on adisplay screen (e.g., 150). The NAS-manager 118 can produce the presentGUI, e.g., via the CPU 142, etc. generating the graphical portion 200.

For ease of discussion, the graphical portion 200 is couched in theexample circumstances of a storage-domain 100 having particular albeitfictitious storage-domain components that exhibit particular albeit(again) fictitious attributes. Hence, the graphical portion 200 has beenillustrated with particular examples of labels for nodes, particularexamples of attributes, and example values for the attributes. It shouldbe understood that such labels, attributes and values will differdepending upon the circumstances in which use of the present GUI arises.

The graphical portion 200 is a tree-table that includes a portionillustrating a tree hierarchy 201 and a second illustrating a table 204.The following description addresses the tree-hierarchy portion 201 andthen (further below) the table portion 204.

A database 119, e.g., an SQL database loaded on the host 132, maintainsinformation about the storage-domain 100 and the various storage-domaincomponents. The tree hierarchy 201 can be represented in the database119, or alternatively in the NAS-manager 118, as lists of data objectscorresponding to the storage-domain 100 and the various storage-domaincomponents. For example, each node in the tree hierarchy 201 can berepresented as a list including data objects that represent all of itschild nodes, respectively.

The tree hierarchy 201 includes: a node 206 at a first level; nodes 208,214 and 220 at second level; and nodes 210, 212, 216 and 218 at a thirdlevel. The second-level nodes 208, 214 and 220 report to the first-levelnode 206. The third-level nodes 210 and 212 report to the second-levelnode 208. The third-level nodes 216 and 218 report to the second-levelnode 214.

The present GUI constructs the tree-hierarchy 201 out of the nodes206-220 in a manner similar to how folders and files are used toconstruct the known two-pane tree & table combination type of GUI foundin the Windows® Explorer® model of file browser made available by theMicrosoft® Corporation. Hence, the present GUI can be an adaptation ofthe Windows® Explorer®-type GUI.

Again, for the sake of example, the nodes in FIG. 2 have been given thefollowing specific labels relevant to the context of the storage-domainexample. Node # Label 206 File_Volumes 208 fv1 210 User_Quotas - Default212 Group_Quotas - Default 214 fv2 216 User_Quotas - Default 218Group_Quotas - Default 220 fv3The File_Volumes node 206 corresponds to the set of all file systems(also known as file volumes) in the storage domain, e.g., mounted on theNAS-device 102. Each of the fv1 node 208, the fv2 node 214 and the fv3node 220 corresponds to an instance of a file system, i.e., to a memberof the set to which the File_Volumes node 206 corresponds.

A file system has its own directory structure, and that directorystructure has its own unique root. For example, a computer or hosthaving a logical c:-drive and a logical d:-drive (e.g., on the samephysical storage unit) can be said to have two separate file systems.Different operating systems have different file-system types, e.g., theWindows® brand of operating systems includes the NTFS and FAT types offile systems, the LINUX variety of operating system includes the XFStype of file system, etc. In the storage domain 100, there are multiplefile systems that can be of the same and/or different type.

The nodes 210 and 216 correspond to a set of instances of storageconsumers, examples of such instances being 106-110. The nodes 212 and218 correspond to a set of groups of storages consumers, examples ofsuch groups being 112-116.

Each of the nodes 206-220 is analogous to a folder in the Windows®Explorer®-type GUI. As such, each is expandable, as indicated by theadjacent expand button taking the form of the icon

Expanding any one of the nodes 210, 212, 216 and 218 can revealfourth-level nodes analogous to files in the Windows® Explorer®-type GUIthat correspond to one or members of the set to which the parentthird-level node corresponds, assuming that a member exists. Suchfourth-level nodes are depicted in FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 depicts a variation 300 of the graphical portion 200 of FIG. 2for the circumstance in which the nodes 210, 212, 216 and 218 have beenexpanded (making each collapsible, as indicated by the adjacent collapsebutton taking the form of the icon

Item numbers have been used in FIG. 3 a manner corresponding to FIG. 2,hence a generalized discussion of FIG. 3 is not provided, for brevity.

The tree hierarchy 301 further includes: nodes 322-334 at the forthlevel. The fourth-level nodes 322-326 report to the third-level node210. The fourth-level node 328 reports to the third-level node 212. Thefourth-level node 330 reports to the third-level node 216. And thefourth-level nodes 332-334 report to the third-level node 218.

Similarly, for the sake of example, the nodes in FIG. 3 have been giventhe following specific labels relevant to the context of thestorage-domain example. Node # Label 322 daemon 324 admin 326 spop 328tty: 5 330 daemon 332 tty: 5 334 tape: 26

In keeping with the analogy to the Windows® Explorer®-type GUI, theFile_Volumes node 206 has been depicted with a folder icon

Though analogous in behavior to a folder, the nodes 208, 214 and 218corresponding to instances of file systems (again, of the same and/ordifferent file-system-type) have been depicted with the

icon (resembling a cylinder), the nodes 210 and 216 have been depictedwith the

icon (resembling the silhouette of a person in front of a horizontalarrow), and the nodes 212 and 218 have been depicted with the

icon (resembling the silhouette of three people in front of a horizontalarrow). Though analogous in behavior to a file, the nodes 322-326 and330 have been depicted with the

icon (resembling the silhouette of a person), and the nodes 328 and332-334 have been depicted with the

icon (resembling the silhouette of three people).

The node 322 (“daemon”) and the node 330 (“daemon”) report to differentfile systems, namely, fv1 (node 208) and fv2 (node 214), respectively.Yet nodes 322 and 330 can correspond to the same user. In other words,the entity to which a fourth-level node corresponds can reportindirectly to two or more file systems (to which respective second-levelnodes correspond).

The table 204 will now be discussed in more detail. The table isadaptively arranged to provide a row corresponding to each of the nodescurrently displayed in the tree hierarchy 201. As noted above, many ofthe nodes in the tree hierarchy are expandable/collapsible, which canvary the nodes which are currently displayed. The number of rowsillustrated in the table 204 is adaptively arranged in response to therespective states (expanded vs. collapsed) of the expandable/collapsiblenodes. Also, the number of storage consumers and groups ofstorage-consumers and/or file systems can vary, hence the table 204 isalso adaptively arranged relative to such changes.

In FIG. 2, the table 204 includes rows 240-252 associated (and alignedwith) the nodes 206-220, respectively. In FIG. 3, the table 304 furtherincludes rows 370-382 associated (and aligned with) the nodes 322-334,respectively.

In general, a second-level node, e.g., 208, will have at least onethird-level node, e.g., 210 or 212 as long as quotas/limits are imposedupon storage-consumers that consume space upon it. If quotas/limits arenot imposed, then the second-level node would not have a child node, asis the case with the fv3 node 220.

The tables 204 and 304 include columns 256-264 that show attributes ofthe respective nodes. The rows of the tables 204 and 304 include cellscorresponding to the columns 256-264. Relative to the nodes 322-334, thecolumns show the following. The attribute of column 256 can be an amountof space consumed/used by the associated user/group on the respectivefile system. The attribute of column 258 can be a soft limit on theamount of storage space made available to the associated user/group. Asoft limit is the quota, or amount of storage space, that theadministrator of the storage domain 100 wishes to enforce upon theassociated user/group. Column 260 shows a hard limit on the amount ofstorage space made available to the associated user/group. A hard limitis the maximum amount of storage space that the administrator willpermit the associated user/group to consume.

The attribute of column 262 can be a size of a grace period in which thesoft limit can be exceeded by the associated user/group. A grace periodis an amount of time that the administrator will permit the soft limitto be exceeded. The grace period addresses the situation in which thesoft limit was not exceeded before starting a data-writing operation butis exceeded at some point after the data-writing operation has begun.The understanding is that the user/group should delete data in duecourse after the data-writing operation has completed in order to gethis value of storage-consumed/used back to being below the soft limit.If the user/group does not get below the soft limit within the graceperiod, no further data writing is permitted until the user/group getsbelow the soft limit. Dropping below the soft limit can reset the graceperiod to the full amount.

Even if the grace period has not been exceeded, no data-writingoperation is permitted to consume more than the hard limit. Rather, thedata-writing operation would be failed at the point of exceeding thehard limit.

Relative to the nodes 210, 212, 216 and 218, the columns show defaultvalues for the attributes. Column 264 can indicate contact information,e.g., an email address, to which notice of exceeding a limit can besent.

In view of being arranged according to the nodes of the tree-hierarchy201/301, the tables 204/304 cannot be sorted on the basis of anattribute to which a column corresponds. Should that be desired, theuser can toggle the present GUI to illustrate a corresponding sortabletable in replacement of the graphic portion 200/300. Toggling can beachieved by selecting the button for a tree-table view (depicted withthe icon

resembling a tree-table) or for a selectable-table view (depicted withthe icon

resembling a table). The present GUI can keep the two views synchronizedwith respect to each other, e.g., such that the highlighted item in oneview remains highlighted in the toggled view.

A result of such toggling is shown in FIG. 4, which depicts a graphicalportion 400 according to another embodiment of the invention. Thegraphical portion 400 is a table (hereafter the “sortable table 400”)sortable on the basis of an attribute to which a column corresponds. Inthe example of FIG. 4, the sortable table 400 corresponds to the table304.

Also in the example of FIG. 4, in addition to the columns present in thetables 204/304, the table 400 further includes columns 488-492. Theattribute of column 488 can be the label of the node with which the rowis associated. The attribute of column 490 can be the type of quotaassociated with the row, which also is the type of entity (user orgroup) associated with the row. The attribute of column 492 can be thelabel of the file system (file volume) on which the associateduser/group has been allotted storage space.

In contrast to the tables 204/304, the sortable table 400 does not showthe rows 240-252. Alternatively, other combinations of rows can beshown, e.g., additionally showing the rows 244, 246, 250 and 251.

In particular, the sortable table 400 has been sorted according to theQuota_Type column 490. Within the sort results, a secondary sort can beexhibited, e.g., alphabetically with respect to user/group name.

The differences between example FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 reveal how the presentGUI facilitates a user's drilling down from a broad view to a specificview, which can make relationships between file systems, default valuesfor various attributes, currently exhibited values of variousattributes, etc., easier to comprehend. Similarly, the ability to doattribute-based sorting of such relationships facilitates theircomprehension.

The relative sequence, left to right, or vice-versa, of the columns inthe tables 204, 304 and 400 can be rearranged by dragging and droppingthe bar illustrating the column heading in a manner similar to theWindows® Explorer®-type GUI.

The expanse of the graphic portions 200, 300, 400 could exceed theboundaries of the panes in which they are illustrated. If so, the GUIcan automatically provide vertical and/or horizontal scroll bars asneeded.

As is apparent from the foregoing, embodiments of the invention can takethe form of methods, software and computers adapted to run such softwareand/or methods. The software can be offered to the user in the form of acomputer-readable storage medium. The storage medium may be a built-inmedium installed inside a computer main body or removable mediumarranged so that it can be separated from the computer main body.Examples of the built-in medium include, but are not limited to,rewriteable non-volatile memories, such as ROMs and flash memories, andhard disks. Examples of the removable medium include, but are notlimited to, optical storage media such as CD-ROMs and DVDs;magneto-optical storage media, such as MOs; magnetism storage media,such as floppy disks (trademark), cassette tapes, and removable harddisks; media with a built-in rewriteable non-volatile memory, such asmemory cards; and media with a built-in ROM, such as ROM cassettes.

The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same maybe varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as adeparture from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all suchmodifications are intended to be included within the scope of theinvention.

1. A method of generating a graphical portion of a graphical userinterface (GUI), the graphical portion concerning aspects of a storagedomain, the method comprising: illustrating a tree hierarchy; including,on the tree hierarchy, a node at a first level corresponding to a set ofat least two file systems that are members of the storage domain; andincluding, on the tree hierarchy, nodes at a second level reporting tothe first-level node, each second-level node corresponding to a memberof the set of files systems to which the first node corresponds.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: including, on the tree hierarchy,nodes at a third level, each third-level node regarding allotment ofstorage space to one or more entities; each second-level node being aparent to at least one of the third-level nodes.
 3. The method of claim2, wherein each third-level node corresponds to a set ofstorage-consumers.
 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:including, on the tree hierarchy, nodes at a fourth level; wherein eachthird-level node is a parent to at least one fourth-level node; eachthird-level node corresponds to one of a set of instances ofstorage-consumers and a set of groups of storage-consumers, each groupcorresponding to instances of storage-consumers, respectively; and eachfourth-level node corresponds to a member of the set to which the parentthird-level node corresponds.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein two ormore fourth-level nodes correspond to the same entity yet and reportindirectly to two or more second-level nodes representing respectivefile systems.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage domainincludes a network-attached storage (NAS) device on which theat-least-two file systems are mounted.
 7. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: illustrating the tree-hierarchy as part of a tree-table. 8.A method of generating a graphical portion of a graphical user interface(GUI), the method comprising: illustrating a tree-table having a treehierarchy portion and a table portion; including, on the tree-hierarchyportion, nodes corresponding to storage consumers that are members of astorage domain; and including, on the table-portion, rows and one ormore columns, the one-or-more columns each representing an attribute,respectively, regarding an allotment of storage space to the respectivestorage consumers, and each row being aligned with one of the nodes,respectively, and including cells corresponding to the one or morecolumns.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the attribute is one of: asoft limit on storage space; a hard limit on storage space; and acurrently-consumed amount of storage space.
 10. The method of claim 9,wherein: the attribute is a first attribute; the first attribute is thesoft limit: and the method further comprises including, on thetable-portion, another column representing a second attribute, thesecond attribute being a size of a grace period in which the soft limitcan exceeded.
 11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:illustrating, in response to a user request, a sortable tablecorresponding to the table-portion.
 12. The method of claim 11, whereinthe sortable table includes all of the rows and the one-or-more columnsof the table-portion.
 13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:toggling between the sortable table and the tree-table.
 14. The methodof claim 8, wherein the storage domain includes a network-attachedstorage (NAS) device on which the respective allotment of storage spacetakes place.
 15. A method of generating a graphical portion of agraphical user interface (GUI), the method comprising: illustrating atree-table having a tree hierarchy portion and a table portion;including, on the tree-hierarchy portion, a node at a first levelcorresponding to one file system in a storage domain; including, at asecond level on the tree-hierarchy portion, at least one of a nodebelonging to a first node-category corresponding to a set of instancesof storage-consumers, and a node belonging to a second node-categorycorresponding to a set of groups of storage-consumers, each second-levelnode reporting to the first-level node; and including, on thetable-portion, rows and one or more columns, the one-or-more columnseach representing an attribute, respectively, regarding an allotment ofstorage space to the respective storage consumers, and the rows beingaligned with the first-category and second-category nodes, respectively,and including cells corresponding to the one or more columns.
 16. Themethod of claim 15, further comprising: including, on the tree-hierarchyportion, nodes at a third level that report to the first-category andsecond-category nodes, respectively, each third-level node correspondingto a member of the set to which the parent first-category orsecond-category node corresponds, respectively; and including, on thetable-portion, rows that align with the third-level nodes, respectively,and include cells corresponding to the one or more columns.
 17. Themethod of claim 16, further comprising: including, on the tree-hierarchyportion, at least two first-level nodes corresponding to at least twofiles system in the storage domain; and including, on the tree-hierarchyportion, a node at a zeroith level representing all instances of filesystems in the storage domain, the zeroith-level node being the parentto each of the first-level nodes.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein aparticular third-level node can report indirectly to two or more of theat-least-two second-level nodes.
 19. A machine-readable medium includinginstructions execution of which by a host produces a graphical portionof a graphical user interface (GUI), the graphical portion concerningaspects of a storage domain, the machine-readable instructionscomprising: a code segment for illustrating a tree hierarchy; a codesegment for including, on the tree hierarchy, a node at a first levelcorresponding to a set of at least two file systems that are members ofthe storage domain; and a code segment for including, on the treehierarchy, nodes at a second level reporting to the first-level node,each second-level node corresponding to a member of the set of filessystems to which the first node corresponds.
 20. The machine-readableinstructions of claim 19, further comprising: a code segment forincluding, on the tree hierarchy, nodes at a third level, eachthird-level node corresponding to a set of storage-consumers; eachsecond-level node being a parent to at least one of the third-levelnodes.
 21. The machine-readable instructions of claim 19, wherein thestorage domain includes a network-attached storage (NAS) device on whichthe at-least-two file systems are mounted.
 22. The machine-readableinstructions of claim 19, further comprising: a code segment forillustrating the tree-hierarchy as part of a tree-table.
 23. Amachine-readable medium including instructions execution of which by ahost produces a graphical portion of a graphical user interface (GUI),the machine-readable instructions comprising: a code segment forillustrating a tree-table having a tree hierarchy portion and a tableportion; a code segment for including, on the tree-hierarchy portion,nodes corresponding to storage consumers that are members of a storagedomain; and a code segment for including, on the table-portion, rows andone or more columns, the one-or-more columns each representing anattribute, respectively, regarding an allotment of storage space to therespective storage consumers, and each row being aligned with one of thenodes, respectively, and including cells corresponding to the one ormore columns.
 24. The machine-readable instructions of claim 23, whereinthe attribute is one of: a soft limit on storage space; a hard limit onstorage space; and a currently-consumed amount of storage space.
 25. Themachine-readable instructions of claim 24, wherein: the attribute is afirst attribute; the first attribute is the soft limit: and themachine-readable instructions further comprises a code segment forincluding, on the table-portion, another column representing a secondattribute, the second attribute being a size of a grace period in whichthe soft limit can exceeded.
 26. The machine-readable instructions ofclaim 23, further comprising: a code segment for illustrating, inresponse to a user request, a sortable table corresponding to thetable-portion.
 27. The machine-readable instructions of claim 26,further comprising: a code segment for toggling between the sortabletable and the tree-table.
 28. The machine-readable instructions of claim23, wherein the storage domain includes a network-attached storage (NAS)device on which the respective allotment of storage space takes place.29. An apparatus for managing aspects of a storage domain, the apparatuscomprising: a host operatively connected to components of the storagedomain; and manager means for running on the host and for managingaspects of the storage domain in part by producing a graphical userinterface (GUI); and generation means for generating a graphical portionof the GUI, the generation means being operable to portray, in thegraphical portion, a tree hierarchy, portray, on the tree hierarchy, anode at a first level corresponding to a set of at least two filesystems that are members of the storage domain, and portray, on the treehierarchy, nodes at a second level reporting to the first-level node,each second-level node corresponding to a member of the set of filessystems to which the first node corresponds.
 30. The apparatus of claim29, wherein the generation means is further operable to portray, on thetree hierarchy, nodes at a third level, each third-level nodecorresponding to a set of storage-consumers; each second-level nodebeing a parent to at least one of the third-level nodes.
 31. Theapparatus of claim 29, wherein the generation means is further operableto dispose the tree-hierarchy as part of a tree-table.
 32. An apparatusfor managing aspects of a storage domain, the apparatus comprising: ahost operatively connected to components of the storage domain; andmanager means for running on the host and for managing aspects of thestorage domain in part by producing a graphical user interface (GUI);and generation means for generating a graphical portion of the GUI, thegeneration means being operable to portray, in the graphical portion, atree-table having a tree hierarchy portion and a table portion, portray,on the tree-hierarchy portion, nodes corresponding to storage consumersthat are members of a storage domain, and portray, on the table-portion,rows and one or more columns, the one-or-more columns each representingan attribute, respectively, regarding an allotment of storage space tothe respective storage consumers, and each row being aligned with one ofthe nodes, respectively, and including cells corresponding to the one ormore columns.
 33. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein the attribute isone of: a soft limit on storage space; a hard limit on storage space;and a currently-consumed amount of storage space.
 34. The apparatus ofclaim 33, wherein: the attribute is a first attribute; the firstattribute is the soft limit: and the generation means is furtheroperable to portray, on the table-portion, another column representing asecond attribute, the second attribute being a size of a grace period inwhich the soft limit can exceeded.
 35. The apparatus of claim 32,wherein the generation means is further operable to portray in thegraphical portion, in response to a user request, a sortable tablecorresponding to the table-portion.
 36. The apparatus of claim 35,wherein the generation means is further operable to toggle between thesortable table and the tree-table.